Saying So Much From So Little

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.2)

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rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

If you took only the text of the Sanskrit verses from the Bhagavad-gita, you would get a book that is pretty small. It could fit inside of a pocket, if need be. Yet that small work turns into a much larger reference guide through a bona fide commentary. The person who remains faithful to the verses and simply explains their significance to the respective audience, accounting for time and circumstance, can continue speaking, saying so much in the process. The resulting work is all due to a few short verses.

Why mention the ability of Sanskrit verses to expand like this? We know that there is so much to read already. A person at the office surfs the internet as a way to cure boredom. It is also a vehicle for procrastination. If they come to a point where they can’t think of any more sites to navigate, a friend can joke to them that they have reached the end of the internet.

But in fact there is no end. The news is endless. Time accounts for this. If you finish reading today’s newspaper, there is always tomorrow’s. Then there is the one from two days ago. If you’ve read every newspaper since you were born, there are still the many that were published prior to your birth. Based on the newspaper example we see that there is so much available to read. This is without mentioning the classic novels, biographies, and historical texts that are also available.

What are these works saying? What does the newspaper teach? Someone dies. Someone lives. Someone attacks the character of someone else. Someone famous gets caught doing something bad. A politician breaks a campaign promise. It is revealed that a noted television news anchor has been a fraud. A war hero returns to his country and gets a medal. A sports franchise wins another championship.

Among other things, the Bhagavad-gita says that the soul does not die. It does not take birth, either. This is interesting. So what are birth and death, then? They relate to the body, which is temporary. That body does not identify the individual. When a specific body type arrives for a spirit soul and that combination then makes a visible appearance, we call the event birth. When the same body stops functioning, when the soul leaves for another body, that is called death.

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

This one verse says so much. It has significance to practically everything experienced in life, for the combination of body and spirit is everywhere. This one verse speaks to the nature of time and space as well. The fact that the soul lives on means that time does not influence its existence. The body references space. The body is what we see. It is what roams through space, which is infinite.

So much new literature can be published that uses this verse as a foundation. This verse helps to explain everything we see around us. From this verse we learn that the great lamentation that occurs at the passing of a famous person is not necessary, since that person has not had their existence altered. We understand that the feverish pursuit for a temporary reward is not worth it, as the object’s temporary nature leads to its gradual loss of influence. Why work for something that you won’t get to keep with you for too long? And yes, in the grand scheme, the lifetime of the human being is small. It is like a tiny point on a chart; almost imperceptible.

This single verse from the Bhagavad-gita already teaches us that people come and go. Thus the volumes of literature focused on the material are not needed. To associate with the body is the default mentality. It does not have to be taught. A fascinating truth revealed by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada touches on the mention of sacrifice and austerity in religious works. The great guru says that things like eating do not need to be taught. Any person can figure out how to eat. The same goes for interaction with the opposite sex. These things are mentioned in religious works for restriction purposes only. With restriction, which only the human being has the intelligence to intentionally implement, the mind becomes more sober and better equipped to consider higher topics like birth, death, reincarnation, karma, the material nature and the Supreme Controller. The motto is simple living and high thinking.

A small work like the Bhagavad-gita provides lifetimes’ worth of education. The volumes of literature focused on the mundane may emerge victorious when the weight scales are the judge, but in terms of educational value there is no contest. The most important questions, the issues actually pressing for the individual, who is a spark of spirit emanating from the storehouse of spirit, get covered in Vedanta philosophy, which the Bhagavad-gita perfectly explains and more. The fortunate person will take advantage of this work and watch their intelligence ascend to heights never before reached.

In Closing:

Volumes of books and newspapers many,

But real value to them not any.

 

Because nature of soul not to address,

On temporary pleasures the stress.

 

From Bhagavad-gita’s verses few and short,

Vast knowledge, fear of death to thwart.

 

Through restriction to come the sober mind,

Then understanding spirit, matter to leave behind.

Speaking Volumes

“Being advanced by thinking of Krishna constantly, they were performing the greatest form of mystic meditation. All the wives then became very busily engaged in filling up different pots with nice foodstuff. Due to the performance of the sacrifice, the various food was all very palatable. After collecting a feast, they prepared to go to Krishna, their most lovable object, exactly in the way rivers flow to the sea.”  (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 23)

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There is the saying that something “speaks volumes.” The expression is used in instances where not a lot is said in comparison to the meaning that can be derived. For instance, if someone of impeccable authority enters a situation where there is a scandal involving someone important, what they say matters. If they confirm the allegations against the accused, their testimony is said to speak volumes. Sometimes silence says a lot as well, such as when someone fails to stand up for someone else.

In the world of illusion that is a material existence, there is the constant search for transcendence. What is that one thing that will bring a permanent end to sadness and despair? How does one solve the problem of death and all the heartache that it brings? God has been the answer since time immemorial, but defining Him has been difficult. What does He look like? What is He called? Is He even a He? The Vedas consist of so much literature for the precise reason that everything related to the Supreme Lord speaks volumes. Vedic literature is the evidence that turns the symbolic expression into a literal one.

The Bhagavad-gita

There are God’s words themselves. He doesn’t need to speak a lot to say much. His direct instructions come to us courtesy of the Bhagavad-gita, which translates to “the song of God.” This isn’t merely a rundown of items of faith. This song systematically covers five important topics: the supreme controller, the living entity, time, karma and the material nature. The verses are short and to the point, but by the end you get to know the objective of life: surrender unto God, who is a person, and abandon all other kinds of philosophies and ways of life. Don’t be afraid in this surrender, because the Supreme Lord Himself will take responsibility for your protection.

Though the Bhagavad-gita is a relatively short book, discussion of it has created volumes of literature. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada could lecture on any verse in this work at any time of the day. He could give a different discourse off of the same verse. The same goes for anyone appearing in the same line of disciplic succession, which has Krishna at the root. Thus we see that God’s words, even when brief, speak volumes.

Vrindavana

The sacred land of Vrindavana speaks volumes. It is basically earth, with some trees and cows scattered around, so how can it talk? You can’t ask the land of Vrindavana anything, but by walking around you hear so much. In one place you find where the Supreme Lord took the calves every day for grazing. You get the sacred Yamuna River, which is so dear to God in His original form of Krishna. From the history of the Yamuna River, you get the incident of the subduing of the Kaliya snake. From hearing that pastime you learn that the marks of the footprint of Krishna keep one safe. Kaliya had those marks on his head, and it protected him from the acknowledged enemy of the snakes, Garuda.

Krishna’s finger

The pinky finger on the non-dominant hand of God speaks volumes as well. It was once used to hold up a massive hill, which then doubled as the world’s largest umbrella. The shelter was necessary since the king of heaven instigated a torrential downpour on Vrindavana, angry that the residents ignored worship of him just a single time. The universe and its planets go through cycles of creation and destruction, and when the time for destruction arrives, there is a specific cloud that pours devastating rain. Known as the samvartaka cloud, this was called upon by Indra to get his revenge on the innocent people.

The pinky finger of Krishna held up Govardhana Hill for seven straight days. Mother Yashoda worried that her boy was getting tired from the effort, and so she asked Him to eat instead. Others thought that Krishna’s arm was tiring, so they put up sticks to help in supporting the hill. But it was Krishna the whole time who held it up, and He wasn’t tired in the least. The residents took a leap of faith in ignoring the Indra-yajna, and Krishna rewarded them with His close association in a seemingly perilous time.

Rama’s arm

The same Krishna appeared on earth once as a chivalrous prince named Rama. Rama’s acts speak so much that they fill up the many pages of the famous Ramayana, authored by Maharishi Valmiki. One work is not enough, and neither is one language. So we find also the Ramacharitamanasa of Goswami Tulsidas, describing the same Rama and His nectar-like actions. Then many Puranas, works of Vedic history, describe Rama’s life as well.

“Hearing the words of the vipra, my father brought the bow forward. Bending the bow in the twinkling of an eye and applying string to it, the mighty prince Rama, who was full of valor, quickly drew the bow at full length.” (Sita Devi speaking to Anasuya, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, 118.47-48)

Rama one time displayed strength that amazed everyone. He arrived at the svayamvara in Janakpur, where the husband for the daughter of King Janaka was being decided. Whoever could lift the bow in the middle of the arena would win instantly. All the princes of the world came, but none could even move the bow. Rama effortlessly lifted the bow. He then broke it while drawing a string to it. Rama’s arm is thus the most powerful one ever seen on earth, and praise of it can fill many volumes.

Bhakti-yoga

Devotional service is synonymous with God; it is non-different from Him. Strict adherence to religious principles is not the height of living. In Vrindavana during Krishna’s time many brahmanas were known to be expert at ritualistic sacrifices conducted for material purposes. Advancement in religiosity, economic development, sense gratification and ultimate liberation cover all the rewards in a material existence.

To show that devotional service, bhakti-yoga, is superior to even strict religiosity, Krishna once asked His friends to beg some food from these brahmanas, who were in the middle of a ritual. The priests refused the boys, even though they were told that Krishna was the one asking. The wives of the same priests immediately dropped everything and donated the best food for Krishna and His friends. The wives, who were considered less intelligent at understanding the esoteric truths of Vedanta, were situated in a position superior to their husbands.

Many similar incidents are there which describe the magic of bhakti-yoga. One devotional act, a single offering made with pure love, speaks volumes in terms of the glories of both the person making the offering and the beneficiary. Krishna doesn’t seek much. He doesn’t ask for great wealth or strenuous effort. The sentiment is what counts, and when it is there, the exchange is thrilling. It can never be described accurately enough, and so those incidents keep speaking volumes and volumes, filling the pages of the always expanding Vedic literature.

In Closing:

Govardhana with tiny pinky finger to lift,

From despair massive umbrella to uplift.

 

Just with powerful arm one,

Hand of beautiful Sita Devi won.

 

Wives of brahmanas in devotion living,

So without hesitation food to Krishna giving.

 

Acts of Supreme Lord volumes demanding,

Pages of Vedic literature thus always expanding.

The Written Word Remains

“In fact, newspapers are read for less than an hour and then thrown in the dustbins as rubbish. The case is similar with all other mundane literatures. But the beauty of transcendental literatures like Bhagavad-gita and Shrimad-Bhagavatam is that they never become old. They have been read in the world by civilized man for the last five thousand years, and they have never become old.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 3.5.7 Purport)

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Things haven’t been going your way. From the frustration you’ve grown a little surly. You’re quick to pull the trigger on your anger now. When in the company of a coworker or friend, it’s not as easy to hold back your thoughts. In your mind, you go over every single offense they’ve ever made. You remember all the times they made you angry. You never said anything back then, because you knew it was wiser to keep your cool.

But on this day they really tick you off. It’s the last straw. You’ve had enough. You unleash a verbal tirade at them in response. You’re so angry that you can feel the color of your face turning to red. You have trouble breathing after the argument, since your blood pressure increased so rapidly. These were just words said out loud, but now you’re tempted to vent your frustrations in writing. You craft a very nasty email, and you’re on the verge of sending it, when you decide to think the matter over.

In Latin there is the phrase “littera scripta manet.” This means “the written word remains.” Your argument with this person will eventually pass. After all, you know that you’ve had other arguments over the years with your friends. The people involved remember what was said and what triggered the argument, but there is no way to go back and actually look up the words that were used. The written word is different, though. That will remain. Many years into the future someone could read that nasty email and get the wrong idea about you:

“Boy, they must have been a very mean person. They must have been angry all the time. How could they write such things about another person, a friend no less? This email gives me insight into this person’s personality, and I don’t like what I see.”

As if knowing the written word’s ability to transcend time, the Vaishnava saints of the past all carefully chose their words. In the voluminous Vedic literature, you will not find much hate. There may be some temporary anger directed at offensive parties in the form of a back and forth verbal debate, a sort of transcript of a conversation, but there is no hate presented as a philosophy. The most famous of Vedic works, the Bhagavad-gita, contains only valid truths. Absent is blanket criticism of an entire society. The properties of the demons are described, for sure, but then in the philosophy itself one learns that a demon doesn’t have to stay that way forever.

“Prahlada Maharaja said: O Supreme Lord, because You are so merciful to the fallen souls, I ask You for only one benediction. I know that my father, at the time of his death, had already been purified by Your glance upon him, but because of his ignorance of Your beautiful power and supremacy, he was unnecessarily angry at You, falsely thinking that You were the killer of his brother. Thus he directly blasphemed Your Lordship, the spiritual master of all living beings, and committed heavily sinful activities directed against me, Your devotee. I wish that he be excused for these sinful activities.”  (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.10.15-17)

Due to their envious nature, such folks are cast into the lower species. Since the soul is eternal and since the bodies are temporary coverings akin to shirts and coats, residence in such species does not have to continue indefinitely. Even the villainous characters of infamy have a shot at redemption. The five year old boy named Prahlada had every reason to speak ill of his father Hiranyakashipu. Prahlada could have filled volumes of books with the offenses his father had committed. But instead we find Prahlada’s request for pardon for his demon-father. Thus the written words of Prahlada contain only golden gems, giving insight into his character that makes one more attached to him.

And Prahlada is best known for his glorification of God. This will live on as well. It is a much better thing to carry into the future than a tirade against a person who has fallen into the pool of ignorance and made many offenses. The glorification of God not only helps countless others in finding the true purpose in life, but it also helps the person doing the glorifying. It means that their best face will shine forth into the future, enduring through every era. No one can say a bad word about Prahlada. His words that live on today endear him to all.

In the words that live on, one can actually form an attachment to the author. Have you ever missed someone whom you have never met? Have you ever felt attached to a person whose physical association has never come your way? This is only possible through the written word. With the help of modern technology, the written word can also be passed on through recorded sound vibration, i.e. audio recordings. These are both the same, as written words are nothing more than sound. The Vedic literature is the sound recording of the speech of saintly personalities. The Bhagavad-gita is the recording of God Himself, making it the most valuable literature.

“Littera scripta manet” is a valuable phrase. It clears up the confusion as to whether or not one should libel someone else. The slanderous words live on, even if you change your mind afterwards. Every person is on the train towards enlightenment, though it may take many lifetimes for some to reach the end. Therefore all ill feelings are destined to vanish, meaning that every person will regret that their unkind words lived on. On the other side, the benefits of devotional service to God remain. Even if a person accidentally falls back into the material ocean, forgetting the lotus feet of the divine master, Shri Krishna, if they ever come upon their written glorifications again those words can act as a saving grace.

For this reason the Vaishnava saints record as much of their glorifications as possible. They pass on this life raft to save even people they will never meet, who are born hundreds of years after the fact. They know the secret that the glories of the Supreme Lord are immeasurable, which allows them to write on and on. They know that others might judge them in the future, and that others will speculate as to their true nature. Therefore through the kind words offered to God and His devotees, others will have no choice but to consider these writers to be great devotees, which is the highest honor to receive. To be known as a servant of the servant of the Supreme Lord is the pinnacle achievement of fame, and through the lasting written word this can be achieved very easily.

In Closing:

To curse one who caused me pain,

But pause since written word to remain.

 

Others upon that tirade to glance,

And for knowing me missing the chance.

 

Vaishnavas power of recorded words understand,

So glorifications of God off to future generations hand.

 

Benefit even if of Krishna later forgetting,

Powerful words right again their mind setting.

Changing The Subject Matter

“No one can check the thinking activities of a living being, nor the feeling, willing or working processes. But if one wants actual happiness, one must change the subject matter only. Instead of talking of the politics of a dying man, one might discuss the politics administered by the Lord Himself.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.6.34 Purport)

This whole world is a product of God’s energy after all, so a blanket rejection of everything within it as being detrimental towards one’s spiritual aspirations is not a very wise policy. Though the human being has so many tendencies towards behavior that proves to be harmful in the end, the inclination to act needn’t be unnaturally checked. Rather, the same interests can be directed towards the inexhaustibly brilliant Vedic literature, which is full of enough variety to satisfy the inquisitive mind for many lifetimes. The hero in these documented accounts, the person who is the central focus of the pious behavior followed and the anger and rage of those who defy the established law codes, is none other than the Supreme Lord, whose spiritual form allows for an attachment that proves to be the most auspicious.

Can attachment be detrimental? What is wrong with having affection for something? Is not the human spirit meant to love? If you have attachment to something that will cause you harm in the end, then obviously the emotional fixation is not warranted. For instance, having a few drinks at home after work may cause a slight relaxed sensation, but should the person indulge in even more adult beverages due to that feeling, in the process developing an attachment so strong that they can’t go a single day without intoxication, will they be benefitted by that behavior?

What about an attachment to a relationship, such as one involving romance or friendship? Fidelity to the relationship is certainly honorable, but basing attachment solely on bodily designations is flawed from the beginning, for the forms identified with must be renounced at some point in the future. Death is guaranteed for whoever takes birth, and whoever dies is guaranteed to take birth. The spirit soul, the essence of identity, is transcendental to these changes, but unless one knows how to identify with the self, the attachments they form will be based on temporary objects that must be parted with eventually. The stronger the attachment, the more painful the emotional fall at the time of separation.

In day-to-day affairs, there is a desire to hear about famous people. The news media profits from this desire. And the sentiments don’t necessarily have to be positive. Should there be a lascivious scandal on the campus of a university famous for its football program, the same figures previously adored and hailed as legends will be dragged down to the point that the newsmakers won’t settle until everyone hates the involved parties. Politics is arguably followed by the most number of people, for what a politician says and how they say it form the subject matter for the endless debates that take place both in print and television news media.

Should we not follow world events? If things are going on around us, why would we want to close our ears to them? The Vedas declare that the human form of body is the most auspicious, but not for its ability to form attachments to bodily relationships or famous figures described in the news. These tendencies indeed exist because of the properties of spirit, which from its constitution has a propensity to love. Love results in service, the kind which operates without motivation and interruption.

“The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated [ahaituki] and uninterrupted [apratihata] to completely satisfy the self.” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 1.2.6)

Service to worldly entities always involves motivation, and interruption is guaranteed. The attraction to the dealings of worldly figures carries the motivation for some type of personal enjoyment, either the ability to praise and honor someone or the inverse of harboring hatred and resentment. A famous athlete is praised for being so good at what they do, but should they fall from grace through illicit relations with many women, they will be hated by the same fans.

Shrila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, a famous acharya on the Vedic teachings of Lord Chaitanya, remarks that hatred is borne of the same loving spirit found within the soul. Indeed, every emotion is derived from the soul’s desire to love in a transcendental way. This cogent fact uncovers the secret to finding lasting happiness, felicity which continues beyond the current lifetime. As the human being is the only species capable of rationally reaching this conclusion through following instruction and thinking it over before fully accepting it within the mind, it is the most advanced species. A precious human birth thus should not go to waste.

How do we break the tendency for harboring attachment to the temporary, or asat? When reviewing the disciplines of spirituality to potentially take up, it is natural to look at the restrictions first. To follow a discipline means that one currently does not have discipline. This only makes sense after all. We attend school to get educated because we are initially uneducated. We get trained in a particular field if we lack the training. Similarly, we start to follow religious principles because we currently don’t follow them at all.

The more restrictions you impose, the less appealing your system will be to potential followers. In the ultimate system of religion known as bhakti-yoga, or devotional service, the bona fide acharyas, when deciding to accept disciples, will impose a restriction on meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex. It should be noted that these prohibitions are not necessary for practicing bhakti, as the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, can be taken up by anyone at any stage in life. The famous brahmana Ajamila inadvertently recited the name of Narayana, which is another word for God, at the time of death and was rescued from punishment for his past sinful behavior. During the latter half of his life Ajamila did not follow the regulative principles, so he would not have been accepted as a disciple of a bona fide spiritual master. Nevertheless, through past accumulated spiritual merits, he was fortunate enough to say the holy name while quitting the body, which thus guaranteed his salvation.

This incident reveals the end-goal of the human birth: to think of God at the time of death. The restrictions are put into place to make that happen. Obviously for someone who grew up eating meat it will be difficult to give up the practice at every meal. The same goes for abandoning intoxication for someone who enjoys it so much, but the focus on the positives in bhakti is more important. With enough immersion in transcendental service, the restrictions will take care of themselves, though they are still explicitly stressed and monitored to show what is required in a spiritual leader. If a preacher speaks on the superiority of being attached to God and no one else, if they have attachments to sinful behavior, how will their message resonate? Example is better than precept, so one who actually follows the principles they preach will be a more effective leader.

Lord Chaitanya, the famous preacher incarnation of Godhead, took to the renounced order of life at a very young age precisely for this purpose. Imagine a twenty-four year old coming up to you and speaking about detachment, the endless existence of the spirit soul, and how one should abandon attachment to anything not directly related to Krishna, or God. Will we take such a youngster seriously? What could they possibly know anyway? But if the same person lives in the renounced order of life, they immediately become superior to others in terms of authority. After all, the person being preached to likely isn’t a sannyasi, and even if they are, they probably didn’t take to the order at such a young age. Thus through following the regulative principles, one earns respect from others and gets their attention when speaking on the glories of bhakti.

If the restrictions are imposed and followed, the tendency towards hearing about famous figures will be there anyway. If we don’t watch the news, we’ll still want to hear about someone else. Luckily for us, the Supreme Lord, the object of sacrifice and penance, comes to earth every so often along with His closest associates. As a respectful guest of the land He owns, Lord Krishna takes part in activities which mimic those of the ordinary living entities. The difference is that Krishna’s tejas, or splendor, is impossible to fully cover up. His activities, which include His instructing others, are the most splendid, so marvelous that they are still talked about to this day.

Pick up a gossip paper that is more than a week old and it likely won’t be useful to you. The twitter feed from a month ago doesn’t have any relevant information because the news reported was meant to only pique the curiosity of someone looking for higher enjoyment, not to satisfy them. With Krishna’s activities, the enjoyment derived from hearing lasts for as long as the Supreme Lord’s stories continue to be told. If you’re interested in hearing about politics, how people lie to get ahead, and how the pious counteract the influence of the sinful, just immerse yourself in the Mahabharata, which describes Krishna’s involvement in the famous feud between the Kauravas and Pandavas. If you like hearing about love stories, men and women getting together, condition yourself to learn about Shri Krishna and His eternal consort Shrimati Radharani. Then hear about their dealings from a bona fide source. These pastimes, though very intimate and thus off limits to the neophyte, are documented in the Shrimad Bhagavatam for a reason. They give tremendous joy to those who have an anxious desire to hear about God and His activities.

If you like hearing about weddings, focus your mind on the famous ceremony held in Janaka’s kingdom, where Krishna in His form of Lord Rama lifted an extremely heavy bow belonging to Lord Shiva to win Janaka’s daughter’s hand in marriage. If you want to hear about the struggle for existence, the successful triumph over both physical and mental obstacles, travel back in time to when Shri Hanuman, Rama’s most faithful servant, infiltrated the enemy territory of Lanka all by himself to find Rama’s missing wife, Sita Devi.

These mental trips will be so worth it that you’ll eventually abandon your attachment to the temporary. The natural yearning towards service and stimulation of the mind doesn’t have to be artificially renounced. Rather, just by changing the subject matter, one can go from living a material existence to enjoying a spiritual life which is full of knowledge, bliss and eternality. The human being’s birthright is to love God, and by following the methods laid down by Krishna Himself, that destiny can become a reality.

In Closing:

Stories of celebrities in papers you’ll find,

Piques the curiosity of your mind.

From hearing about scorn, love and deceit,

Some pleasure in your mind you receive.

These tendencies don’t outwardly reject,

Focus on Krishna instead, change the subject.

With proper training hear of highest love,

Radha and Krishna always think of.

For bravery Hanuman, and Mahabharata politics,

This way guarantee of salvation when body you quit.

I/O

“Whatever we learn of God from authoritative sources can be described, and that will help us make spiritual progress. This description is called kirtana. If we try to repeat what we hear, we become established in knowledge.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Raja-vidya, Ch 4)

One of the more amazing aspects of the traditions that follow the original Vedas, the scriptures instituted at the beginning of creation by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, is the wide breadth and volume of literature that has been produced. While particular spiritual traditions may have their single book that they focus on and study exclusively, the Vedas are not limited in this way. Rather, the truths espoused in the original Vedas - which do nothing more than glorify the Supreme Person, His energies, and the processes aimed at understanding Him - can be described over and over again by new generations of listeners. This further glorification is known as kirtana, and it serves two wonderful purposes. First, it allows the student to further advance in knowledge by making practical use of the information imparted upon them. Secondly, kirtana serves to further enhance the glory of the Person being described. The incomprehensibly large volume of the Vedic literature is another feature that establishes the supremacy of the person whose glories are sung and described.

What are the Vedas? The root word means “knowledge”, but the information contained within these sacred songs, hymns and poems is not meant for acquiring mundane information or learning how to perfect a specific technique. What is mundane information? How can we make subjective judgments on information aimed at achieving a purpose? At their root, the Vedas glorify the Supreme Person, the original divine being. Even within the celebrated songs this person is described by many different names, but each devotee prefers their specific name, be it Krishna, Vishnu or Rama. Regardless of the appellation chosen, to accept the authority of the Vedas is to accept the position of the person glorified within the songs. To say that the Vedas prohibit deity worship or any other process regularly engaged in by followers of the Vedic tradition is to talk utter nonsense. As soon as we hear someone quoting from the Vedas, it is to be understood that they accept Vishnu as the Supreme Lord; otherwise the statements and conclusions uttered by such people have no meaning.

Though there are different branches of knowledge presented, the Vedas are meant primarily for understanding the Supreme Person; otherwise the information presented would be limited and not given much attention. If we want to learn how to become a doctor, we have to study many different books about medicine and science. The books themselves can provide bits and pieces of information about various aspects of life, but the primary objective is to enable one to perform a specific medical task and become familiar with the discipline of healing their fellow man. Similarly, all the songs, truths and postulates put forth by the Vedas are meant for understanding Vishnu, who is beyond the dualities of the material world.

What do we mean by duality? There are examples of this everywhere, but we can take something as simple as the sunshine. In the wintertime, the colder months of the year, the sun’s presence is enjoyed and highly sought after. The sun is the beacon of light, providing the desperately needed heat and warmth to save the earth’s population from freezing to death. But in the summer months, when the temperatures are generally warmer, the sun being out in the sky can be the cause of pain. Whenever there is excessive heat, the blazing sun can only further add to the discomfort already inflicted by the high temperatures.

Is the sun any different from one season to another? Does the winter sun bear different properties from the summer sun? Has the sun somehow become favorable to one group of people and unfavorable to another based on the passage of time? Obviously the sun’s position is fixed, but what has changed is the environment and mindset of the people affected. Therefore there is a duality created, one where something constant is viewed in different ways based on circumstances.

The Supreme Lord can be thought of as the spiritual sun; His presence and mercy are always there. He is beyond the dualities of heat and cold, love and hate, and happiness and distress. Not surprisingly, those who are intimately connected with Him through a mood of love and devotion will similarly rise above the temporary ups and downs associated with material life. The Vedas exist for the very purpose of glorifying the Supreme Lord, which in turn brings about favorable conditions. If the mind is focused on the sweet, transcendental form of Shri Krishna - the most attractive and beautiful of all forms of Godhead, and not surprisingly the original one as well - the contemplative person can transcend the effects of their material body and rise to a higher plane of consciousness, one which brings freedom from the doldrums of everyday life.

Though the original Vedas are sufficient for understanding Krishna and glorifying Him, there are many other texts which descend from them, sort of like subsidiaries or supporting documents. On the surface this may seem like an indication of a deficiency in the original texts. After all, the Christians have their Bible and the Islamists their Koran, so why can’t followers of the Vedic tradition stick to one book and just study that exclusively? The Bible has such a strong following that others who are not interested in spirituality but have dedicated their lives to following a more narrow form of personal maintenance refer to their favorite books as “my Bible”. This actually indicates that the real Bible is not sufficient enough for them to take as their primary guiding force in life. If we have one book that we consider our Bible, it means that we look to it as our instruction manual for survival. If this book doesn’t reference spirituality, the nature of the soul, the workings of matter, and the need for rising above duality, then it proves to be insufficient in governing behavior and providing real happiness.

A particular text written at a particular time may be useful and tailored towards connecting with a specific audience, but as time goes by, the circumstances in society do change. The makeup of the modern world is drastically different than it was say even fifty years ago, so new challenges are presented to the spiritual leaders, those aiming to instruct the masses about the need for worshiping God. The ultimate conclusion should never change, however. This is the key. The followers of the Vedas never deny the authority of the original texts, nor do they downplay the supremacy of the person these works glorify. Rather, through kirtana, the same truths originally passed down can be explained in a multitude of ways. Actually, the total number of ways is infinite, as who could ever fully enumerate the glories of the Supreme Person, the one entity who is not limited by the bounds of time and space?

To see how new compositions can prove useful in expounding on the same eternal truths of life originally passed down by God, we can take arguably the first book written in the world, the lengthy poem called the Ramayana, penned by Maharishi Valmiki. At the time of this work’s composition, the Vedas were well established as the only theistic tradition in the world. The Supreme Person they glorified and the traditions put into place for honoring Him were well known to the people of the world. But Maharishi Valmiki, through deep meditation on the holy name of Rama, wanted to glorify the Lord even further. He decided to craft a poem that detailed the life and pastimes of Lord Rama, an incarnation of the original person.

Since the Ramayana reaches the same conclusion as the original Vedas, there is no contradiction raised. Indeed, the Ramayana is very understandable and appealing to those who are naturally inclined towards loving God. The original Vedas are songs and hymns, but the Ramayana describes specific pastimes enacted by the same God that we are all inclined to know and approach. Moreover, writing the Ramayana was a great way for Valmiki to share his loving emotions that coursed through his body. For Valmiki, there is no other God except Rama, and he made this fact well known through his Ramayana.

Similarly, there are the eighteen major Puranas composed by Vyasadeva, who divided the original Veda into four and wrote an absurd amount of Vedic literature. The Puranas were well established prior to Vyasadeva’s writing them down. Indeed, when Lord Rama was roaming the forests with His wife Sita Devi and younger brother Lakshmana, He would often discuss incidents from the Puranas during periods of rest. The brahmanas, the members of the priestly order, whose task it was to guide society in their steady march towards freedom from the cycle of birth and death, would also recite incidents from the Puranas when speaking in public gatherings.

Vyasadeva simply took the collection of incidents already known to most people and grouped them together into official literary works of art. Arguably his most profound work, the crown-jewel of Vedic literature, is the Shrimad Bhagavatam, or Bhagavata Purana. This wonderful text presents all the truths of the Vedas in a carefully laid out sequence that is easy to understand when studied in the proper order. The major incarnations of Vishnu are also described along with their activities. In the tenth canto of this sacred work is found the activities and pastimes of Lord Krishna, the supreme and original Personality of Godhead. The activities Krishna performed on this earth some five thousand years ago give a glimpse into the eternal pastimes that take place in the spiritual sky, Goloka Vrindavana. One can become liberated by simply hearing this transcendental nectar and relishing the sweetness.

Even with the Puranas, Ramayana and original Vedas present, the writing doesn’t stop. Acharyas, spiritual teachers who lead by example, are always authoring more commentaries, poems and books glorifying Krishna. Around five hundred years ago the followers of Lord Chaitanya, Krishna’s preacher incarnation, wrote so many books that it would take a lifetime to simply peruse through them, let alone understand the deep meanings and purports. The brothers Shrila Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami wrote handbooks on devotional service, poems glorifying the qualities of Lord Krishna, and dramas expounding on the lila documented in the Shrimad Bhagavatam, Harivamsha, Mahabharata and other classic Vedic texts.

Becoming familiar with Krishna does not involve only a one-way flow of information. First the knowledge of the soul, its marginal position with respect to the material and spiritual energies, and its inherent link to the Supreme Lord is imparted to the serious student. Simultaneously, the regular chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”, takes place. When this chanting is done congregationally, the practice is known as sankirtana. Kirtana is thus usually associated with singing songs about the Lord, but at its root it means “describing”. Therefore the writing of the acharyas and the poets of the bhakti school is equally considered kirtana.

When there is output of information, the speaker’s faith and confidence in the supreme stature of the person they worship is validated. Moreover, another source is created, a branch if you will, for people to come and take information from. The different branches of a bank allow customers to deposit and withdraw money without having to travel very far. If there were only one branch of a particular bank, the customers would be greatly inconvenienced, and thus the bank wouldn’t have many patrons. But with many branches, the breadth, scope and influence of the banking institution can rapidly expand.

Similarly, the more Krishna is glorified in written and spoken word, the more opportunities there are for others to learn about Him. The Vedas are not the exclusive property of the Hindus or those born to Indian parents. The Supreme Lord is the spiritual sun, so His light of transcendental goodness shines on every single person. The devotee, the bhakta who takes in spiritual information from their guru, or spiritual master, and then subsequently outputs the same knowledge in their own way, is the person who knows how to capture the spiritual energy and properly utilize it.

Is there a way to use God’s mercy improperly? Well, there is evidence of the improper use of heavenly gifts all around us. The sun, sky, earth, water and fire belong to Krishna’s separated energy. Though they are considered matter, or material, they nevertheless exist for a purpose. When utilized for one’s personal sense gratification or for carrying out wicked plots aimed at achieving world domination, obviously the energy is used improperly. But when the same earth is used to construct a deity form depicting the Supreme Lord’s transcendental body and the forms of His celebrated incarnations, the mercy of God is taken full advantage of. When the tongue we have been given by God is used to eat Krishna prasadam, or remnants of foodstuff offered to the deity, purification takes place. When the hands are used to clap along to the sankirtana party chanting “Hare Krishna”, the mercy of Krishna is utilized fully.

Reading about Krishna’s pastimes and glories in the countless books authored by devotees is as good as chanting, because the hearing process is still there. Whatever the beacon of light on earth, the glorified spiritual master, has learned from his studies of Vedic philosophy can be found in his written and verbal instructions. In this way the sacred texts represent not only the glory of Krishna but also the wonderful and effective nature of the processes employed in understanding Him. The teachings of the devotee and their glorifications of the Supreme Lord prove Krishna’s worthiness of worship. If we follow the simple formula of inputting wisdom from the authorized sources into our mind and then outputting the same glorifications in word and song, our progression towards the spiritual sky will rise to the most rapid pace, one that will guarantee liberation at the time of death.

Broken English

“Even if transcendental literature is written in faulty language, it is acceptable if it is written by a devotee, whereas so-called transcendental literature written by a mundane scholar, even if it is a very highly polished literary presentation, cannot be accepted. The secret in a devotee's writing is that when he writes about the pastimes of the Lord, the Lord helps him; he does not write himself.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi 8.39 Purport)

It’s pretty amazing to think that one person can take to writing a single book and have it become immensely popular. While the bookstores are filled with bestsellers covering a wide range of topics, the greatest selling and most popular books of all time have been of the spiritual variety. In the Vedic tradition, the humble sages, the devotees of Shri Krishna and His non-different expansions, have managed to write the most famous and widely read books in the history of human civilization. Yet ironically enough, they never actively sought out such achievements, nor were they expert grammarians or writers. Rather, they simply had a sincere desire to offer some humble service to the Lord, who subsequently took care of the rest.

It is natural for writers to want their finished product to be of the highest quality. The intention is to have the finished work presented in a lucid linguistic style, one which is both readable and appreciated by the masses. There are certainly different writing styles tailored for different audiences, but writers are advised to adhere to the generally accepted standards. When these standards are violated, the writer is deemed a neophyte, or one who is not very educated. If an author is deemed uneducated, the content of their work is taken less seriously, thereby causing the initial intended purpose of the writing to be thwarted.

While adherence to style and grammar are important in the writing business, these rules are of secondary importance in the discipline of devotional service. The sum and substance of Vedic philosophy can be described in the famous aphorism, athato-brahma-jijnasa, which means “Now is the time for inquiring about Brahman, or the Absolute Truth.” The human form of life is considered most auspicious due to the potential for intelligence. An animal may have a certain level of intelligence depending on the particular species, but only the human being is wise enough to realize that it is mortal. Moreover, a human being can use this knowledge to inquire about the origin of life and the reasons for birth, death, old age, and disease.

Human life actually doesn’t begin until an inquiry into the Truth is made. As long as one remains ignorant of the presence of the soul and its attributes, their lifestyle is really no different than that of an animal. Obviously an animal knows how to live the animalistic lifestyle much better than a human being does, so if the human being remains ignorant throughout its lifetime, it squanders a golden opportunity. If a human being wants to enjoy eating, sleeping, intoxication, and unrestricted sex life, it must go to great lengths and suffer through many hardships. Relationships with the opposite sex surely aren’t easy and neither is securing enough wealth to meet the demands of food, clothing, and shelter. The animal, on the other hand, gets food, sex, and intoxicants very easily and without much strain. A monkey enjoys sex life to a much higher degree than a human being ever could.

Thus an intelligent human being aims to inquire about the Absolute Truth and then use the acquired knowledge to take the necessary steps to end the cycle of birth and death. A human being does not take its identity from the body, for this is simply an outer covering which constantly changes. At the time of death, the entire covering is discarded, and a new shell is molded based on the individual’s desires and work. The identity of the individual comes from the spirit soul, whose natural home is an imperishable realm where there are no such things as temporary bodies. In order to enter this eternal realm, the soul must be free of ignorance, delusion, and desires for material association. As long as one retains a desire to lord over material nature, they remain closed off from the spiritual world.

Devotional service is a discipline which allows a conditioned living entity to gradually climb to a liberated status, a position achieved through the purification of consciousness, or altering of the thoughts and desires of the mind. If our consciousness is completely purified at the time of death, we’ll immediately return to the spiritual land where the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, resides.

Taking to devotional service, or bhakti-yoga, is quite simple and completely natural. Divine love is a function of the constitutional makeup of the soul. Since the individual soul, or jivatma, is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, Krishna, it has qualitative attributes which are similar to the Lord’s. This isn’t to say that the individual souls are equal to God, but rather they are complementary to Him. Krishna’s natural disposition is that of the energetic, the one entity who is ever-deserving of service. This service is provided by the subordinate entities, i.e. us. Since we are to provide the service, we are known as God’s energy. The natural condition of the soul is to be in the company of the energetic, a meeting of the original flame with its fragmental sparks.

“The living entities in this conditioned world are My eternal, fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 15.7)

Constitutional activities are those which help maintain association with Krishna. Any other activity is thus deemed conditional. By default, we are prone to conditioned activities when we are in an embodied form. Any living entity who takes birth in the material world and accepts a material body is considered embodied, or dehinam. Therefore the aim of human life is to adopt constitutional activities and shun conditioned ones. The quintessential constitutional activity is the chanting of the holy names of God, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. Krishna and Rama are names of God, and Hare calls out to His energy. Chanting is the most basic form of bhakti-yoga because it involves direct connection with pure spirit. Moreover, any activity that aims to keep one connected with the Lord can also be considered constitutional and thus part and parcel of bhakti-yoga.

Writing for sense gratification belongs in the conditioned category. This designation speaks to the issue of desire. The conditioned state of mind is very difficult to break out of, so in order to be successful in spiritual life, we must play offense by attacking the seeds of desire. The foremost desire - that hankering which is the most formidable impeding force against self-realization – is to satisfy the senses through fruitive activity. People write for different reasons; they are either looking for fame and wealth, or they may simply want to teach others about a particular discipline. For many, writing itself is a therapeutic activity, a way of releasing thoughts and ideas in an uninhibited manner.

In the realm of fruitive activity, good writing requires a style of grammar that will be appealing to a large audience. The underlying intent is to please both the senses of the writer and those of the audience. A writer is wasting their time if nobody reads their books or if even the writer fails to derive pleasure from the end-product. No one can read the books without buying them, so there is a circular condition created right at the outset. Aside from grammar and style, there is the all-important issue of content. Just as the secret to success in real estate is “location, location, location”, the success of a communicator ties directly to “content, content, content”. The subject matter has to be interesting enough to entice others to spend their hard-earned money on the book. For this reason, the bestselling books are usually the ones authored by famous personalities of the political, sports, financial, and pop culture realms.

“An iron rod put into a fire becomes warmer and warmer, and when it is red hot it is no longer an iron rod but fire. Similarly, when a devotee constantly engages in devotional service and thinks of the Lord in his original Krishna consciousness, he no longer has any material activities, for his body is spiritualized.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 7.7.36 Purport)

Since acts of devotion are considered constitutional, they have nothing in common with conditioned activities, save for maybe outward appearance. This rule applies to the area of writing as well. When writing is undertaken as an act of devotional service, the writers are acting simply out of pure love for the Supreme Loveable Object, Shri Krishna. This means that the writer has no desire for fame, wealth, prestige, honor, or personal therapy. Rather, they are writing simply to make Krishna or one of His devotees happy. In the spiritual world, oneness is shared between Krishna and His pure devotees. It is similar to how an iron rod will eventually turn into fire when placed under the heat of an immense torch. In the spiritual realm, the complete whole consists of Krishna and the devotees, two complementary entities. As such, the aspiring devotees view their spiritual guides and fellow devotees as equally as worshipable as Krishna Himself. If not for the kind work of exalted devotees of the past, we would never find out who Krishna is, what He looks like, or how to please Him.

Since the devotee writer remains unconcerned about grammar, style, and appealing to the general public, it’s understandable to think that the quality of their writing would suffer. If the devotee was able to actually finish writing a book, then surely it wouldn’t be popular with the general public. The only way to make these books popular would be to edit them and present them in a style which was generally acceptable and appealing to the majority of the people of the time. Those attracted by this line of thinking would be severely mistaken. Two notable historical examples, among countless others, prove that pure devotion is all that is required to make a writer’s work both popular and supremely effective at disseminating the essence of spiritual knowledge.

Around four hundred years ago, a Vaishnava saint from Northern India unintentionally firmly established himself as one of the greatest writers in history. This saint was Goswami Tulsidas, and his Ramacharitamanasa, a lengthy Hindu poem which details the life and pastimes of Lord Rama, a warrior prince incarnation of Godhead who appeared on earth many thousands of years ago, became one of the most popular books in history. Prior to Tulsidas’ advent, Lord Rama’s life story was already told in the famous Ramayana poem written in the Sanskrit language by Maharishi Valmiki. Tulsidas particularly wanted to tell the story in Hindi to please Lord Rama and to give the sincere souls of the time a chance to understand the glorious activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

To understand just how remarkable Tulsidas’ work was, we have to consider Lord Rama’s popularity at the time. Lord Vishnu, Krishna, and Rama are non-different forms of the original Lord, so stories relating to their pastimes were well known in India during Tulsidas’ time. In fact, this has always been the case for the inhabitants of India. Yet somehow, through no personal desire or outward intention, Tulsidas managed to write a poem which would go on to become a staple in the homes of every Hindu. Indeed, he even authored a devotional poem praising Lord Hanuman called the Hanuman Chalisa. This is likely the most recited poem/song in the history of human civilization.

So the results of Tulsidas’ writing are visibly known, but what was his motivation? As a sannyasi, he didn’t have any possessions, wealth, or family ties. This means that he didn’t see a dime from the recitation of his great works. He never received any royalties from the singing of the Hanuman Chalisa. He didn’t have any army of distributors, a publishing company, or a printing press mass producing his work. Moreover, he didn’t even write most of his poems in Sanskrit, which is considered the oldest and highest class language. Many non-devotees and dull-headed brahmanas criticized him for allegedly sullying the good name of the Lord by writing about Him in a common language like Hindi.

“O son of Kunti [Arjuna], I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable om in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 7.8)

In the face of all these opposing forces, how was Tulsidas able to succeed? The answer is pretty simple. He had no desire for fame, prestige, or respect, nor did he want anyone to buy his book en masse. Rather, he simply wanted to think of Rama and please the Lord through his kind efforts. In the realm of devotional service, there is no such thing as superior and inferior service. In Sanskrit, human effort is referred to as paurusham, and from the Bhagavad-gita, we see that the source of paurusham is Krishna. As a result, we really have no abilities of our own. Whatever talents we do possess are on loan from God. Therefore no one person’s service can be considered superior to another’s. Everyone’s abilities come from God.

While there is no quantitative comparison between the humble services offered by different entities, there is a difference in effort. What pleases the Lord is sincerity and dedication to service, rather than the exact nature of the activity. In Tulsidas’ case, Lord Rama was extremely pleased by the level of devotion and dedication shown. Thus he helped Tulsidas in his writing. Tulsidas’ humility, kindness, and love for Shri Rama permeates the sound vibrations that makeup the pages of his transcendental works. This spiritual potency carries over even to versions of his works which are translated into English; such is the power of the message glorifying the Lord. When a devotee writes sincerely and without personal motive, the Lord personally enters the devotee’s mind and helps him choose just the right words to get points across.

This indeed was also the case with His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Shrila Prabhupada is arguably the most prolific author of Vedic philosophy in the English language. What’s ironic is that English certainly wasn’t his first language. Rather, he decided to make a humble effort at translating the great Vedic texts into English at the request of his spiritual master, His Divine Grace Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Shrila Prabhupada’s original works were authored, edited, produced, and distributed all in a very short period of time, yet they became immensely popular. Not only are his books popular, but so are his speeches and lectures. Since many of these lectures were recorded, one can listen to them today. One will notice that when Prabhupada spoke extemporaneously, he often used broken English. He would miss words here and there, and he would fail to properly conjugate others. In addition, he had a very thick Indian accent, thus making it all the more difficult to understand him. Yet for devotees who listen to these tapes, the sounds are like pure nectar. There is not one thing faulty about them. The reason for this is that Prabhupada’s words were completely genuine and without any tinge of personal motive. The sounds are transcendental and replete with pure love and devotion for Krishna.

The miraculous nature of transcendental writing is visible in the works of countless devotees, past, present, and future. The writings of Lord Chaitanya’s exalted disciples and their followers, including Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, exhibit similar traits, as do the writings of Vyasadeva, the literary incarnation of Krishna. This further buttresses the truth that the sincerity of a writer is what matters most. As with any endeavor in devotional service, if the motive is pure, the Lord will take care of the rest. When the writer is connected to the spiritual world, the resulting words can be sourced directly to Krishna Himself.

Yesterday’s News

“Only the Supreme Lord Himself or His empowered representative can possibly free us from confinement in this dark well. Under their guidance we can come to know of the limitless ocean of the spiritual sky.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Renunciation Through Wisdom, Ch 2.7)

With the advancement of technology, newspapers are slowly going out of fashion, at least the print versions anyway. In many circles, reading the newspaper is considered part of the higher culture. The belief is that anyone who wants to know anything must read the newspaper regularly to keep up with current events. Though most news is read on the internet these days, the same belief system applies to news items of any kind. If we are given an old newspaper or sent a story which is more than a day old, we usually don’t have any interest in it. Newspapers essentially have an expiration date; they lose their importance in the matter of hours. The dead-tree editions of expired newspapers end up being used for packing material, toilet paper, or fuel for a fire in a grill. Based on this, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to read something which doesn’t lose value over time. Moreover, wouldn’t it be worth our while to spend our time learning about facts and truths that only increase in importance as time passes? This is precisely why God gave us the Vedas and all the literatures that are derived from them.

It’s the common routine for many people to get their coffee in the morning along with the paper. The newspaper is especially nice for commuters who take public transportation to school or work. Sitting down comfortably in their seat, commuters can skim through the latest headlines, the sports scores, and even the comics on their way to wherever they are going. As soon as the destination is reached, however, the newspaper gets tossed aside. If we do end up saving our old newspapers, it’s only to use them for packing material or any other purpose except reading.

Why do news items lose their importance as time goes by? The answer should be fairly obvious. Let us first examine why we even take an interest in the news. As mentioned before, in many circles, regular news readers are considered to be part of the higher class. “If you read the news, you are up to date on the happenings of society around you. You know what the issues are in relation to elections, you know what the future weather forecast is, and you also know about any recent developments in health and science.” Along the same lines, anyone who doesn’t follow the news must be an ignorant and low class person.

There are others though, who take to reading the news simply out of boredom or the need for entertainment. They may have a particular politician, actor, or athlete that they like, so they’ll take an interest in following their every move. The editorial page also provides insightful opinions on subject matters that we may not be familiar with, so we feel like we are getting an education in addition to being entertained.

These justifications for reading the news seem valid enough. Yet why we do we see newspapers get thrown away one day after they come out? Try giving an old newspaper to someone and they will likely scoff, “This is old. Why are you giving this to me? It has no value.” Newspapers contain written words, so their importance lies in their content. When we say that a newspaper loses its importance after only a single day, we’re saying that the content is what becomes irrelevant. One simply has to examine the contents of an average paper to see why.

Without even reading tomorrow’s news, we can already predict what it will contain. Someone will have been murdered; a politician will have criticized another politician; a sports team will have won and will now think that their chances of capturing the title are good; another team will have lost; fans will be calling for such and such manager to be fired; columnists will be praising another player for performing well; predictions will be made; editorials will be written; the weather forecast will be provided, etc. Now let us go back in time to a newspaper from say a year ago. What we will find is that the nature of the stories is exactly the same. The exact names and circumstances may be different, but the theme of the stories will undoubtedly be the same. We can even go further back in time, five years, ten years, etc., and see the same phenomenon.

“In the material world we are simply chewing the chewed, throwing it away, picking it up and then chewing it again. Spiritual variety is not like this.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Teachings of Lord Kapila, Ch 13.29)

If the news is always the same, why do we keep following it? The great devotee of Lord Vishnu, Prahlada Maharaja, gave us insight into this concept. He referred to the repeated attempts at finding sense gratification in the same areas as “chewing the chewed”. We read one newspaper, take in all the various stories, and get whatever little enjoyment we can out of it. The next day we read the latest newspaper, thinking that the nature of the stories will be different, when in fact they aren’t. Hence the most recent edition of the newspaper is something we’ve already chewed. But since we are illusioned by the forces of maya, we think that we haven’t chewed this information already. This cycle of chewing the chewed repeats itself over and over again.

“Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 8.20)

What is maya? The Vedas tell us that God created this world to be a flawed replica of the spiritual world. The spiritual world is full of bliss and is unchanging. This material world is just the opposite. Matter is always changing, either through human effort [paurusham] or through the influence of the divine [daivam]. Since matter is always changing, we tend to think the enjoyment that we derive from it will also change. This is the effect of maya. Maya means that which is not; she is the illusory energy which governs this material world. Her powers of illusion manifest through her ability to fool us into thinking that matter, which is constantly changing, will give us new feelings of enjoyment. But as we see with the example of the newspaper, what we take to be change is actually nothing more than the same chewed material presented in a different form.

But what choice do we have in the matter? We live in the material world after all, so aren’t we forced to associate with this changing matter? Though everything in this world can be taken to be matter, there are exceptions. The most easily perceivable exception can be found right inside of our bodies. Though our body is composed of matter, it doesn’t form the basis of our identity. For example, we have hands and legs, but we can’t say that our identity comes from our limbs. If an arm gets cut off, we can still survive, meaning that the loss of our hand doesn’t equate to the loss of our identity. Recently, one of our friends noticed a man riding the train in a major metropolitan area. This man had arms, but no hands. Yet somehow he was reading a newspaper and drinking coffee that was purchased from a local market. Reading the newspaper and holding the drink were certainly extraordinary feats by themselves for a man with no hands, but even more remarkable was that this person must have had to pay for his newspaper and drink. Even with his handicap, he didn’t seem troubled in the least bit; he had everything under control.

So we see that our body parts, which are composed of matter, are part of our identity, but at the same time they are not. In a similar manner, we living entities are also part of the supreme whole known as God, yet we are still different from Him. This simultaneous oneness and difference is known as achintya-bheda-bheda-tattva, and it was the truth expounded by Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya, an incarnation of God who appeared in India some five hundred years ago.

Our identity comes from the spirit soul residing within. The soul is unchangeable, unbreakable, and immoveable. When we use the terms “I” and “Mine”, we are actually referring to our soul. If we lose a hand or a leg, we can stay alive in our current form, but if we lose our soul, our life ends. The event known as death is the exiting of the soul from the body. The soul is not part of maya, hence it is an exception to the rule that all things are material and changeable. There is another exception as well: the Supersoul, or Paramatma. The Supersoul resides within the heart, but it is an expansion of God. Our soul, or atma, only resides within our body, but the Supersoul resides within the bodies of every living entity, thus illustrating the difference between us and God.

Atma and Paramatma are not products of maya, nor is Brahman, the impersonal effulgence that constitutes all things material and spiritual. Still, both Brahman and Paramatma originate from a supreme person. This personality is known as Lord Krishna, or God. God is the Supreme Absolute Truth, so in this sense He is the opposite of maya. His spiritual world is that which is, meaning a place where what you see is what you get. Though we currently reside in the material world, a perverted reflection of the spiritual world, we can still associate with God in a number of ways.

When we say “we” can associate, we’re referring to the spirit soul within. The soul is currently covered by a material dress which fools us into taking material sense gratification to be the ultimate aim of life. A higher engagement is to associate with something which transcends maya. Paramatma fits the bill. Since it is an expansion of God, the Paramatma can give us supreme bliss, should we choose to associate with it. We just have to know how to achieve this association. This is where yoga comes in. Yoga means linking our consciousness, atma, with the supreme consciousness, Paramatma.

This linking can be achieved through fruitive activities, philosophical speculation, meditation, or through acts of devotion. Acts of devotion are the best way to link ourselves with God because one who devotes their life to God automatically achieves the same benefits as the fruitive workers, mental speculators, and meditators. The Paramatma is within, so it’s not particularly clear as to how we can associate with it. Since Paramatma is God’s representative within our body, it is our duty to take direction from it. Since we’re in the conditioned state, we don’t know how to take this direction. To help the living entities who are genuinely in search of the Absolute Truth, the Lord kindly sends a representative to teach from without. This representative is the spiritual master, and he is a pure devotee of Krishna.

Association with the spiritual master can be of two varieties: vapu and vani. Vapu refers to personal association; offering service to the guru in person. Vani refers to the words and instructions of the spiritual master. Association through vani is achieved by reading the books written by the spiritual master and following the instructions previously given. It is precisely to allow future generations of mankind the association through vani that the great acharyas of the past wrote voluminous Vedic literatures. By reading these great books, we will be engaging in a worthwhile activity. Unlike newspapers, these great Vedic texts don’t lose their significance over time. The spiritual master is a representative of Krishna, who is the original spiritual master. A bona fide guru only teaches those things which Lord Krishna Himself originally taught to great personalities of the past. Seen in this light, the instructions contained within the great Vedic texts can be considered an incarnation of God. Since God is unchangeable, it would make sense that His instructions would inherit the same characteristic. By reading the great Vedic texts, we are directly associating with God.

We may throw away the newspaper or use it for packing material, but we hold onto the Vedic texts. Books like the Bhagavad-gita and Shrimad Bhagavatam have been studied for thousands of years. The epic Ramayana is even older, and yet people are still deriving pleasure from reading it. This is something we should really think about. In our mind, let’s just try to go back in time to one thousand or two thousand years ago. Now let’s think about how different life was and how people engaged in different occupations and spoke different languages. Now let’s ponder this: even during such primitive times, the Bhagavad-gita and Ramayana were being recited, studied, and enjoyed. How amazing is that? This one fact alone proves how valuable these great books are.

“That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.” (Lord Krishna, Bg. 8.21)

In today’s advanced technological age, access to information is not a problem. This means that we can read the great Vedic texts at any time and at any place. There really is no excuse not to take advantage of these great works. Many great acharyas have written wonderful commentaries on these books, passing on their wisdom to future generations. Even though these books were written in the past, they are anything but yesterday’s news. The guru carries news from the spiritual world; news which gives pleasure to the soul. By consulting the guru’s vani, we learn how to take instruction from the Supersoul within. The Supersoul will then guide us back to the spiritual world, where we will get to personally witness the latest news and events pertaining to Lord Krishna, His various incarnations, and His devotees.